Holland Taylor has opened up about why she and Sarah Paulson maintain separate households after more than a decade together.
The 83-year-old actress, who appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show on Oct. 20, explained that geography and demanding careers keep the couple from sharing a permanent address. “We do as much time as we possibly can because work takes us apart constantly,” she told Barrymore. She added that they are together as much as “geography and our jobs” allow.
Taylor detailed how the arrangement functions across both coasts. In New York, she maintains an apartment where Paulson, 51, stays when she is in the city. “I have an apartment here, and she stays here at my apartment when she’s here, and we stay together here when we’re both here,” Taylor said. In Los Angeles, however, the situation remains more complicated. Taylor keeps her own house there, while Paulson has a new home that remains unoccupied nearly a year after she acquired it. “I have a separate house from hers, but her new house she hasn’t moved into yet and it’s been almost a year,” Taylor noted. She added that Paulson has been staying at her L.A. House in the meantime.
Paulson herself has previously championed their unconventional setup. On a 2024 episode of the Smartless podcast, she called the arrangement the “secret” to their longevity as a couple. “We’ve been together for a long time now,” she said at the time. “And part of it has to do with, we’re together when we want to be and we’re not when we don’t.”
When host Sean Hayes proposed that separate bedrooms under one roof could solve the problem, Paulson rejected the compromise. “No, because my favorite thing to do – we fall asleep holding hands, Holland and I,” she fired back. “We sleep holding hands. I like to sleep near her. I don’t want to be around her the rest of the time. Just kidding!”
Taylor and Paulson first crossed paths in 2005 and went public with their romance in 2015. Since then, they have become a fixture at major industry events, including the 77th Annual Tony Awards in June 2024 and the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party this past March 15.
During her Drew Barrymore appearance, Taylor offered a window into what draws her to Paulson beyond their domestic arrangement. “She’s very serious about some things and she is the most artful friend of anyone I’ve ever known,” Taylor shared. She continued, “Friendships really, not always, but they do require a certain amount of investment, time, attention, and sometimes work… She gives it all.” Taylor emphasized that Paulson maintains “quite a number of seriously important, devoted friends” and devotes significant energy “on people that she really loves, doing things for them, being with them.” She summed up her partner simply as “really fascinating.”
The couple’s decision to keep separate residences has drawn renewed attention as Paulson’s new Los Angeles home sits empty, but both women have made clear the choice is deliberate rather than a sign of distance.